Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

here is the final formatted version

http://www.stormpages.com/gitdown/Poetseye090904.html

Not only is this a strong and much-needed comment, LR, but, once again, it got me to stumbling and meandering ( not to mention malingering . . .) around the WEB looking for ancilliary comment.

One of the most interesting I found can be read here:

http://www.notbored.org/markoff.html


It's a NYTimes article about fighting back against surveillance cameras. At the foot of the page is a link for the "Surveillance Players", apparently a guerilla theater group.

This brings me to remark that I have just about decided that the world is divided into two kinds of people: those who have an intense interest in surveillance and those who are either indifferent or actively opposed to it. ( I guess that's three . . .). For some folks, surveillance is a twenty-four-hour-a-day obsession. It reminds me of H.L. Mencken's definition of Puritanism: "The lingering fear that somewhere, somehow, someone is enjoying himself . . ."

It's amazing how at work ( thank heaven, past tense) I used to meet other faculty, groundskeepers, janitors, secretaries and particularly management who extolled the installation of some new electronic surveillance tool or another on campus.

With the advent of computer geekdom and the concomitant necessity for some personnel to keep the school computers running, I got to see the real item at full throttle. There's a fellow who runs the computer system at the college where my wife teaches Math who wears a baseball cap with the official US Federal Bureau of Investigation logo on it. He was all for installing surveillance cameras in the library-- on every bookshelf!

Lest you think this fellow a fanatic, I can attest that, when I went to a meeting of these geeks once ( that was enough) the talk was constantly of surveillance, and never of keeping the damned computers running so the staff could perform simple tasks, like looking up a student's schedule.

Of course, I am such an anti-surveillance advocate that even perusing someone else's college study list seems an intrusion-- even if I am faculty and have a serious, procedural reason for doing so. It makes me feel too much like a warden or at least a cop sniffing around to find a reason for arrest.

Thanks for writing this piece, which I hope was partially prompted by the "National ID" piece by Ron Paul I posted.


--Zlatko

yes, z-ko
I was directly inpired by your Ron Paul post to do this piece

I just posted the final revision above

Thanks for responding, LR.

There's an interesting interview with Pat Buchanan on Antiwar.com today.

I thought it might pique your interest:

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/wanniski.php?articleid=3520



--Z

yes, Z

I saw Pat B. on Meet the Press last Sunday.

I read his column twice a week. I never much liked him when he was in politics, but he is making much more sense these days.

In "I see the Boys of Summer", Dylan Thomas wrote:


"O see the poles are kissing as they cross . . ."


Those beautiful lines recall the political ( and philosophical) truth that "poles" often "kiss and cross." I am thinking here of Gore Vidal and Pat Buchanan-- who are closer together now than ever before!


--Z

I've been reading everyone's thoughts on the governments idea to mark everybody so they can keep track of us better. You know, I've been fascinated by the Bible for years. I've gone through phases when I thought it was literally true, or pure fiction, or myth based on truth, and everything in between. But one thing I know - the prophecy in Revelation does say that some day a loaf of bread will cost a bag of gold, and everyone must accept some kind of "mark" on their head or hand, without which they will not be allowed to buy or sell anything. And in the Old Testament it talks about pagans sacrificing children to moloch; reminding me how we sacrificed our kids in Viet Nam and Iraq.

I met this great couple who are members of the American Civil Liberties Union. We met becasue their son was on the same baseball team as my son. Ah, the contrast between those beautiful sunny days of a good ball game with hot dogs and cokes, compared to the dark creeping overcast of government control agencies!

So I'm going to ask my friends in the ACLU if there is anything we can do to make our voices heard through their efforts to retain some freedom from "big brother."
My friends are also members of the Unitarian Universalist church, which is unlike any other church I've ever seen. You don't have to believe any particular way to join the church and the pastor even encourages people who disagree with him to speak up!

I guess my main point is, we aren't alone. There are groups of people who believe in our rights and I'm getting in good with them.

There will be another season of baseball, too!

-Bill

Bill, it's great to see you here

about the Unitarian Univeralist thing,
I've always admired the non-demoninalationists

I'm just more comfortable with people who are seeking the truth
than those that think they know the truth.

"More comfortable with those seeking the truth than those who think they know the truth."

Yeah, I'm not recruiting members. Actually, I don't know that the Universalists claim to know the truth, but I know what you mean.

But if those fuckers could get my electricity turned on, I'd put a dollar in their plate! It's been almost a week with no power.

But enough of my whining.

Later,
- Bill

So now you're decrying the same bullshit you're employing. Brilliant, smell-rod. While you're busy hunting and pecking over there, do us all a favor and buy your hooker girlfriend a dictionary.

great column, enLightningOne!

oh and phaedr-ass... i have a dictionary... so i looked up the word "hooker" and y'know what? thank you... i had no clue what it meant until you mentioned the word. *smile*

too bad i don't get paid for this.

i'm going to put up a donate link.

LOL!

universalism...unitarianism


i've known for years about them and have meant to attend, but haven't

i may....